Nyangatom language
From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia
| Nyangatom | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Ethiopia |
| Region | Omo River region |
| Ethnicity | Nyangatom |
Native speakers | 24,000 (2007 census)[1] |
| none | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | nnj |
| Glottolog | nyan1315 |
Nyangatom (also Inyangatom, Donyiro, Dongiro, Idongiro) is a Nilotic language spoken in Ethiopia by the Nyangatom people. It is an oral language only, having no working orthography at present. Related languages include Toposa and Turkana, both of which have a level of mutual intelligibility; Blench (2012) counts it as a dialect of Turkana.
Phonology
[edit]Vowels
[edit]| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u |
| Near-close | ɪ | ʊ |
| Close-mid | e | o |
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ |
| Open | a | |
- Vowel length is contrastive in Nyangatom, as in dʒík 'completely' vs. dʒíík 'always'
- Before a pause, short vowels carrying a single, simple tone are devoiced.
Consonants
[edit]| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |
| Plosive/ Affricate | Voiceless | p | t | t͡ʃ | k |
| Voiced | b | d | d͡ʒ | ɡ | |
| Fricative | s | ||||
| Flap | r | ||||
| Approximant | w | l | j | ||
Moges Yigezu, however, analyzes Nyangaton as having implosive stops, rather than voiced egressive stops.[2]
Bibliography
[edit]- Dimmendaal, Gerrit J. 2007. "Ñaŋatom language" in Siegbert Uhlig (ed.) Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, Vol 3. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. pp. 1131–1132.
References
[edit]- ^ 2007 Census
- ^ Yigezu, Moges. "Some notes on Implosive consonants in Nyangatom." Studies in Ethiopian Languages 5 (2016): 11-20. [1]